This morning I was awakened by hunting dolphins

This morning I was awakened by hunting dolphins as they corralled fish into the empty slips around my boat.  It never ceases to amaze me, the pure muscle and grace of those people, how perfectly they are fit to their environment.  Somehow it seems that all is right with the world when I see and hear them going about their daily lives, hunting, playing, going from place to place.  How fortunate to be able to observe them and take joy in the observation.

When they had moved on I noticed that the sky was getting light.  I made a cup of coffee, walked down to the end of the pier, took a seat on the concrete bench and settled in to watch the sun rise.  Magenta, violet, purple, pink, rose and red, the sky performed the slow wheel of change.  With the brightening of the day, the rookeries in the mangroves came to life.  Egrets, Pelicans, Herons, Osprey, Gulls, Ducks and Cormorants, along with many other small birds greeted the morning sun, taking flight to begin the day's hunt for food.  Their calls filled the morning sky as much as the sunlight did.

There is much in this life that is good.  There are many simple things that bring simple pleasures.  The gentle warmth of a morning breeze, the sounds of life greeting the day, the sound of waves as they meet the shore, the taste of coffee, the smell of salt and sea, the colors of the sky and the patterns of the clouds.  With the artificial bustle of the human world these things can get lost or just simply missed.  How easy to focus on what is wrong and forget what is right.

Once the sun had cleared the horizon I stood and gave thanks, performing the homage of namaste and went back to Avalon, my boat, to begin my own preparations for the day with a feeling of a day well begun.  "Once again, dear friends, into the breach.  Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"  It's so easy to let the frustrations of our lives place us into a space that demands aggression and force.  It can seem so necessary.

Take a breath, hold it, let it out slowly.  Roll your shoulders forward and then back.  Stretch your arms to the sky and arch your back.  Relax into an upright posture and then say "thank you".  It doesn't matter to whom or what you say it.  All that matters is that you say it and mean it.  Your prayer of gratitude will be heard.

No one gets out of here alive, so live it like ya mean it.